This disclosure is related to information retrieval.
Sellers and service providers often work to generate leads for a company. The popularity of the Internet has led to users searching for sellers and service providers over the Internet. Various websites are available that collect information about a user searching for a product or service. In sales, such user information can be referred to as a lead. Leads can be used by companies providing the product or service to generate sales.
However, users may be reluctant to provide their personal information for fear that the information will be resold to providers without the user's consent. Moreover, the personal information, once in the seller's database, typically remains there until the seller removes the information. Thus, the seller can continue to try to market to the user, even though the user may not want to be contacted any further.